Seems quite a few folks here have read Cresson Kearny's book on surving nuclear war (or whatever). He says it's very easy to follow his instructions and make your own radiation meter, but it looked like quite a project to me. Have any of you made one? How would one know if his home made meter was working properly? There has also been quite a bit of discussion about how to respond to a nuclear event. I would like to know to respond to a variety of scenarios, just in case. Like, what if a city near me gets nuked? vs. a city further away but the wind is coming my way. Etc. When is it safe to come out, to eat/drink exposed stuff.... What kind of situation calls for no more than keeping the windows closed as the Jaspanese recently advised to do....

-- Shivani Arjuna (SArjuna@aol.com), October 07, 1999

Answers

Not sure about Kearny's book, but a novel by Dean Ing called "Pulling Through" has quite a few tips about surviving nuclear strikes.

In the back, it even has diagrams and instructions for building a dosimeter (NOT a geiger counter - there IS a difference). This thing is built out of household stuff.

Check it out!

Jolly

-- Jollyprez (jolly@prez.com), October 07, 1999.

It's free on the web:

http://oism.org/nwss/

enjoy!

btw: Last night there was one of those "emergency broadcasts," only for the first time ever in my experience, it came on in the middle of a song. The broadcast sounded live, not canned, echoey like shortwave. Then the song resumed. Heard that local jets are fueled up on the runway and ready to take off at the drop of the proverbial hat, also. There's a high state of alert just now, probably having to do with the recent anti-missle test (which China and Russia denounced prior to the test, but are now eerily silent about). So keep your ear to the ground and get ready duck and cover.

Liberty

-- Liberty (liberty@theready.now), October 07, 1999.

baproducts has a kit out -- still needs assembly, but it contains all the parts needed to build Cresson's meter. Price = $15. That may be a small price to pay for accurate parts cutting.

How do you insure calibration? Find a known source and measure it. Where? I don't know. But, you can assume that the thing is off by 50% and play it safe.

-- de (delewis@XOUTinetone.net), October 07, 1999.

Shivani;

If you read the book you have referenced you will note that the KFM is designed to work NO MATTER WHAT. It would take God him/her slelf to change the calibration on the KFM.

With that said, that instrument is not the most sensitive in the world, and may not be the best choice if you are looking for small changes in the local background radiation.

Type in RADIATION METER into your local search engine and look at the companies that are currently offering products. Most that are based on the Geiger Counter type systems will work for basic fall out. All out exchange, get a KFM....

Things will get worse before they get better...

-- Helium (Heliumavid@yahoo.com), October 08, 1999.

And, while I happen to REALLY like "Pulling Through" Dr. Ing made a couple errors in his notes, which you will find in the Kearney book as that was the source.

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), October 08, 1999.

Hi, Chuck, You said Dr. Ing made a couple of mistakes which I will also find passed along in Keaney's book. But I won't know when I have "found" them, because I won't know what the mistakes are. Would you be so kind as to tell me? Thanks.

-- Shivani Arjuna (SArjuna@aol.com), October 09, 1999.